One of three major components affecting exposure, is  Shutter Speed; the term given to the duration which the shutter is open for. The shutter itself is essentially a curtain in front of the image sensor. This is is measured in fractions of seconds, or whole sections displayed on the camera with the “ symbol.

eg. 1/500 = 1 500th of a second

Slow Shutter Speeds
A slow shutter speed means the image will be brighter as the longer the shutter is open for, the more light is let in. Additionally, the shutter speed controls freezing/blurring of motion. So the slower the speed; the more blurred the image is likely to be. This is often used intentionally to create a photographic effect. A good blurred effect is best achieved with darker lighting, a stable surface (such as a tripod) and a slower shutter speed.

Accidental reasons a blurred image: 
Misfocus
Object movement or 
Camera shake

Camera Shake
In order to avoid camera shake, you can use the reciprocal rule; chose a shutter speed that as larger than the focal length of the camera.
eg. Shooting with a 50ml lens, means you need to shoot at of over 1/50 in order to avoid camera shake. Because I have a variable zoom lens, I will need to refer to the focal length number on my camera lens, and relate this to the denominator of shutter speed figures. 

Fast Shutter Speeds
By limiting the amount of time in which the shutter is open for, there is a higher chance of capturing a still image. This is particularly useful when capturing moving objects. However, given the shutter doesn’t stay open for as long, it does not allow as much light into the image sensor. Thus there can be the issue of producing dark images, which may need to be counteracted using either or both ISO and Aperture exposure settings.

Freezing / Blurring Motion
Images captured of a moving subject showing a fast and slow shutter speed. Despite seeking out a darker spot to take these photos, the latter two images taken with a 4″ shutter speed turned out still quite overexposed. However, this was to be somewhat expected as there was surely a lot of reflected light being taken in by the camera.

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The following two images were captured during class with a hand held flash and a slow shutter speed to different capture stages of movement. The effect is both eerie and intriguing. It is an interesting way of exploring freezing motion with light using a slow shutter speed.

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Panning
This effect is essentially tracking a moving subject, which I did using with varying shutter speeds. The result shows that the success of this effect is heavily dependant on light, subject speed and distance to the subject.
My panning images did not turn out as clear as I had hoped, possibly because I needed a slightly quicker shutter speed as I was so close to such a quick moving subject.

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Zoom Blur
A dated and highly stylised effect resulting from zooming in on a subject using a slower shutter speed. The result had my dog looking very meme-like.
I chose a quick moving subject and stood quite close when taking the following shots, this made some images come out much more blurred than others. By adjusting the shutter speed and making it gradually quicker, there is a clear sweet spot for using the Zoom Blur effect. However, I certainly don’t see myself using it again any time soon.

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Light Trails
With the camera mode set to Manual, in class we experimented with using both a hand held flash and phone lights to create shapes in images. All shots were taken in a dark room with shutter speeds of 10”.

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Altogether these images gave me a new perspective on slow shutter speeds where blur can be a friend rather than the enemy of photography.